Newcastle council and the NSW government have been falling over themselves to avoid blame for Supercars abandoning next year's Newcastle 500.
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The truth is all three bear a good deal of responsibility for the way the event has divided the city.
In the end, Supercars chief executive Shane Howard was left with little choice but to pull the plug this week and move ahead with planning a season-opening race in Bathurst.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes and the council's senior management made it clear they would not support the race returning for one more year.
The government made it clear it was not ready to commit money to the race for a longer-term deal.
The Labor-dominated council's position followed a round of community consultation in the middle of the year which showed widespread opposition to the race.
Once the genie is out of the bottle, it's very difficult to shove it back in.
Incredibly, or perhaps not depending on your level of cynicism, this was the first time the community's views had been sought in the seven-year history of an increasingly controversial event.
Newcastle council voted in secret to pursue the race in July 2016, not long after the Newcastle Herald conducted an informal online poll which showed 90 per cent of 4000 respondents supported bringing the race to town.
A Herald editorial at the time was broadly supportive of the race but warned that locking the city into a long-term deal could spell trouble if the event proved overly disruptive.
Premier Mike Baird arrived in Newcastle the following month to publicly announce the city would host a Supercars round for five years with the financial backing of Destination NSW.
A secret deal
Later that year, the council's then chief executive, Peter Chrystal, signed a "services deed" with Supercars outlining the council's financial and other obligations as race host.
This contract was kept secret from the public and councillors.
The Herald visited the long-running Adelaide Supercars event in March 2017, and it quickly became apparent what the Newcastle street race would mean for the historic East End: big grandstands, concrete barriers, steel fences, ear-splitting noise and masses of people.
Supercars is great for people who love it, but it's a painful headache for many living or working inside the track, especially those trying to preserve and protect a nationally important heritage precinct.
The government, council and Supercars gave scant regard to residents' concerns before and after the first race in December 2017.
The government did not establish a public coordination unit but left it up to Supercars to implement a paltry community engagement strategy which only solidified community opposition.
Residents likened it to a fox in charge of the hen house.
The race's nine-week bump-in and bump-out period proved hugely disruptive to many residents, businesses and visitors, and the promised economic benefits failed to eventuate for some traders.
On the plus side, the first race drew a huge crowd and attracted plenty of media attention to the city's inner-city and coastline.
The 2018 and 2019 events went ahead with smaller crowds but the same outrage from affected residents and businesses.
The council commissioned a study to show how important the race was to the city's economy, but some residents and councillors opposed to the event questioned the report's results.
COVID-19 cancelled the Newcastle 500 from 2020 to 2022, but the race returned this year in a new autumn time slot.
End of the affair
However, by the time the last barricade was packed up in late March, the city's affection for the event was gone.
The council-commissioned online survey showed people across the local government area listed the race's number one drawback as "disruption to residents and businesses near to the race track".
The survey showed 59 per cent of 11,000 respondents in the LGA did not want the event to return.
Opposition to the race had apparently skyrocketed from 10 per cent to almost 60 per cent in seven years.
Where to from here? Will the council and government revisit a five-year contract down the track?
High-profile motor racing organisations are accustomed to wielding influence with politicians eager to be associated with their sport, as demonstrated by Chris Minns' energetic attacks on the "nonsensical" council this week.
But unless the council can devise another round of consultation which demonstrates public support, any future decision-makers who want to approve the race's return will have to wilfully defy their constituents' views.
Once the genie is out of the bottle, it's very difficult to shove it back in.
The prospect of this happening before the council elections in September 2024 is remote, which means a 2025 Supercars event in Newcastle is at very long odds.
The council and state government spent significant amounts of ratepayer and taxpayer money on a race which lasted only four years before losing broad community support.
It is time for the council and government to move on and find less divisive ways to promote the city and region.